


Scraps and Scrapes

by sailorstar165



Series: Song of the Forest God [5]
Category: D.Gray-man, No. 6 (Anime & Manga), No. 6 - All Media Types
Genre: Chaoji's a jerk, Gen, M/M, Mice, Secret Messages, angry shion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-11
Updated: 2020-04-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:01:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23599516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sailorstar165/pseuds/sailorstar165
Summary: Shion doesn't know what he should do after Allen is arrested for treason, and certainly not when he flees the Order.
Relationships: Mentions of Nezumi/Shion
Series: Song of the Forest God [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1659271
Comments: 6
Kudos: 22





	1. Notes

**Author's Note:**

> This one's a little more on the serious side than the other random one offs I wrote, but I thought it would be interesting to write how Nezumi and Shion react to Allen being locked up after the Alma Karma arc.

Jerry was cheerful as ever as he greeted Nezumi. “Good morning! Is Shion still under the weather?”

“He’s feeling better,” Nezumi replied with a shrug, “but he doesn’t want to get anyone else sick in case he’s still contagious.”

“So you’re getting breakfast in bed for him? How sweet!”

Nezumi wore a charming smile as he shrugged again and ordered for the two of them. It was all a lie. In reality, Shion was being Shion and trying to respect his fellow exorcists by staying out of sight. With his white hair and being only a little shorter than the real thing, Shion had been mistaken for Allen Walker a handful of times since their return from their last mission, and each time, faces crumpled upon realizing their mistake. When Johnny had burst into tears, that was too much for him, and the teen had sequestered himself in the room they shared.

Shion said he was fine with things this way, but he was a terrible actor.

Enough was enough for Nezumi. Finding Shion pretending rather poorly to be caught up in a book he was reading upside-down, Nezumi said, “You can’t keep hiding.”

“It’s hard enough for everyone without me there.”

He pressed the plate into Shion’s hands. “Doesn’t mean you should stay holed up in here. Be useful. Teach Jerry how to make your mom’s cherry cake or something.”

Shion looked thoughtful a moment as he broke a piece of his toast off for Mr. Darcy. Then, slowly, “Do you think the mice here could deliver a message like Tsukiyo used to?”

* * *

Later that day, Lenalee almost let out a scream when she saw the mouse sitting on her dresser. Then she saw the little capsule in its mouth. A while ago, Shion had commented that he and Nezumi used to send messages to each other that way when they were kids, and that’s what came to mind when this mouse she recognized as his set the capsule down and scampered a safe distance away.

The note was a tiny scrap of paper that read, _“Keep it short. He’ll take it to A.W.”_

A small gasp escaped her lips and tears pricked her eyes, though she stubbornly held them back as she searched for a pen and paper.

* * *

How many days had he been down here? Allen wasn’t really sure anymore. Timcanpy growled nearby, and Allen leaned his head back against the wall with a small thunk. He hurt all over, but especially in his side where Kanda had stabbed him. That wound should have been fatal, shouldn’t it? So how was he still here?

His eyes slid closed and he had almost drifted off into an uneasy doze when a squeak caught his attention. A little brown mouse sat on his knee offering up a little capsule in its teeth.

“You’re… Darcy, aren’t you?” His voice sounded strange to his ears. He hadn’t spoken in so long for fear that Central might misconstrue anything he said.

The mouse squeaked again, a little more insistent. It dropped the capsule in his open palm, then took it back once Allen pulled the paper scrap from inside to scurry away through a small crack in the wall. Allen tried not to laugh. His prison was human-, golem- and Innocence-proof, but apparently, they hadn’t considered the rodent population. Nezumi would probably be insulted if he wasn’t currently exploiting that oversight.

The note was a short one, but Allen’s breath caught when he recognized Lenalee’s handwriting. _“We believe in you.”_

It was probably a few hours later, shortly after some higher up from Central tried to interrogate him again, when the mouse reappeared with another message, this one in Timothy’s messy scrawl: _“Lvellie can eat shit.”_ It made Allen smile, thinking how Emelia might react if she knew what her charge was writing.

Another hour later brought another message from a different mouse—Allen thought this one was Mr. Whiskers: _“Thank you for believing in me. I believe in you.”_ This one from Miranda’s pen.

He received a few more throughout the night, from Krory, Shion, even Johnny. No one signed their names, but the messages and writing made it clear from whom they came. He kept them hidden in his shoe, so when Apocryphos and the Noah showed up and he made his escape, he still had them.

While on the run he kept the scraps in his pocket, hoping that one day he could thank his friends for them.


	2. Cold Snap

Morale among the exorcists was at the lowest Nezumi and Shion had seen it in their short time among them. Lavi and Bookman were missing. Kanda was presumed dead. Allen had fled the Order. They were all overworked taking out the Akuma threat and searching for their missing comrades. Even the youngest among their ranks was currently laid out with a fever. Compared to the rest of them, Nezumi, Shion, and Miranda were the only ones mostly uninjured, but that was only because they did not fight directly. As it was, Nezumi was nursing a mug of hot tea, his voice long gone. Otherwise, he’d have sung a bit for those in the infirmary. Perhaps not for the other exorcists, but certainly for Shion, whose nerves seemed to be frayed both from the strain of being Elyurias’s host and from the conversation currently taking a dangerous turn.

“Bookman and Lavi must be alive,” their resident vampire Krory was saying. “I’m sure they’re fine. And…” He trailed off, not saying the words on everyone’s mind.

At last, Chaoji filled the silence. “Allen Walker?” He spat out the name like something rancid on his tongue. “Who cares about him? He killed the Inspector and ran off with the Noah! The next time I run into Walker, I’ll—!”

“But we don’t know that’s what happened!” Shion cut in. “The mice—”

Chaoji interrupted, “It’s pretty convenient that your boyfriend’s rats didn’t see what happened.”

It was a good thing Nezumi had to pull the trigger on the Forest God’s power. Elyurias was not benign to those not of Mao blood, and Shion was about ready to snap. While he didn’t think Shion would use the Innocence to hurt anyone, Nezumi wouldn’t put it past the Forest God herself to use either of them for that purpose.

“Just what are you trying to say?” Despite how level Shion’s voice was, Nezumi could hear the cold anger behind it.

He put a hand on Shion’s arm. “I don’t care,” he said, his voice hardly above a whisper.

“But—”

Nezumi set his empty mug aside and headed for the door. “He’s full of shit.”

“So you think Walker’s innocent too?” challenged Chaoji.

He shrugged. “I think we don’t have all the pieces.”

“What’s missing? Allen Walker ran away after betraying the Order! Inspector Link is dead! And I bet you used your little rats to—”

Shion acted before Nezumi could stop him. His fist collided hard with the Chaoji’s face. Thankfully, Krory was close and quick enough to stop Shion before he could go in for another blow.

The Forest God’s song rang in Nezumi’s ears as Elyurias, perhaps feeding on Shion’s anger, took offense to the insinuation, and once again, Nezumi was thankful that only he could give her power and his voice was fried. Just in case, he didn’t touch Shion either. “Shion, drop it.”

“But Nezumi!” There was worry in Shion’s eyes besides the anger. It was a serious accusation, especially considering what they’d been up to not long before Allen’s escape, though none of the other exorcists would breathe a word of it. They had no proof anyway, since Allen had taken it with him when he fled.

The song died away, and only then did Nezumi dare to touch Shion. He tilted the other’s face up by the chin. “Come on, you promised me cake when we got back. If we hurry, you can probably send some with them for the ride.”

Shion pursed his lips but agreed to go with Nezumi to the cafeteria. And despite still being angry with Chaoji, there were cupcakes ready before the other exorcists left on their mission.


End file.
